Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the answer of 3 October 2025 to written question 74972, if she will list the eleven schools in Bedfordshire.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has published details of successful projects and applicants to the Condition Improvement Fund for the 2025/26 financial year, including the local authority and constituency. This list can be found on GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/condition-improvement-fund-2025-to-2026-outcome.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the take up rate is amongst targeted pupils for free breakfast clubs.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Free Breakfast Clubs are for all pupils to give children life chances and parents work choices. Through our free breakfast club early adopter schools, we have served more than 5 million meals, and we are expanding the programme by further funding an additional 2,000 schools this year, benefitting half a million more children.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate about how much a) income tax, b) National Insurance and c) student loan repayment she expects the average person turning 30 in 2025/26 with a Plan 2 Student Loan to pay by 2029/30.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The average Plan 2 loan borrower turning 30 years of age in the2025/26 financial year and making student loan repayments through PAYE is expected to pay £29,100 in income tax, £11,600 in employee National Insurance contributions and £5,600 in Plan 2 student loan repayments between the 2025/26 and 2029/30 financial years (figures rounded to the nearest £100).
Plan 2 borrowers turning 30 in 2025/26 are likely to be in the early stages of their careers, and many may not be earning enough to be making student loan repayment. These borrowers are not included in our average. Plan 2 borrowers may re-borrow or have borrowed on other plans. These student loan repayments have not been considered. Only PAYE student loan repayments have been considered. Note some Plan 2 borrowers will be making voluntary repayments direct to the Student Loans Company, making repayments from overseas or be on self-assessment.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Government to crackdown on bad behaviour and boost attendance, published on 31 August 2025, if she will publish a list of schools receiving targeted support.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The regional improvement for standards and excellence attendance and behaviour hubs programme is intended to provide support to senior leaders to improve their whole-school attendance and behaviour practice. Participation in the programme will be voluntary, although schools with specific attendance or behaviour challenges will be encouraged to participate. Given this is a supportive initiative, the department does not intend to publish the names of the schools receiving enhanced support through the programme.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Over half a million children to benefit from funded childcare, published 1 September 2025, whether she has made an estimate on the average additional number of hours worked this will result in; and if she will make an estimate of the total (i) economic value and (ii) cost to the public purse of the policy.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, improving opportunity for every child and work choices for every parent.
From 1 September, eligible working parents of children aged nine months and older are now benefiting from 30 hours of funded childcare. Reaching this milestone means hundreds of thousands of families are better able to balance work and family life.
Central estimates for the financial benefits of extending early years education and childcare entitlements were published in April 2024 by the National Audit Office, which indicate, as of March 2024, a benefit-to-cost ratio of £1.26:£1.00, and a total estimated benefit of £15.972 billion, based on a total estimated cost of £12.723 billion.
The Office for Budget Responsibility also estimated that 60,000 additional parents will enter work, and 1.5 million will increase their working hours by 2027/28, as a result of the policy.
Now the programme is in live delivery, the department will continue to monitor how these estimated benefits develop throughout the programme.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of (a) consultations and (b) reviews conducted by her Department since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The information is not readily available or held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the proportion of student visa holders who progress to graduation.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold data on what proportion of student visa holders progress to graduation, however, data on non-UK domicile entrants is collected by the Office for Students (OfS).
The OfS publish data on the completion rates of entrants. For full-time first degree non-UK domicile entrants from 2016/17 to 2019/20, 89.9% completed their courses within 4 years 15 days of entry to higher education. This data is published annually and the latest available data was published in August 2025 at : https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/student-outcomes-data-dashboard/data-dashboard/.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 5 June 2025 to Question 54102 on Schools: Flood Control, whether her Department has had discussions with Kimberley College in Stewartby on flood protections.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
To date no correspondence has been received from the college on this matter, therefore my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education can confirm the department’s Schools Water Strategy has not held discussions with Kimberley College on flood protections.
The department has invested in measures to reduce risk to flooding at over 600 schools to the end of 2024/25 and through the Schools Water Strategy, we continue to invest in flood prevention in schools at risk of flooding in line with our published Sustainability and Climate Change strategy.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press release entitled Patients and pupils to benefit from school and hospital repairs, published on 30 May 2025, whether any schools in Bedfordshire will be included.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government has increased investment for improving school buildings to £2.1 billion for the 2025/26 financial year, almost £300 million more than last year. As part of that, close to £470 million has been made available to eligible schools and sixth-form colleges through the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF).
The department has published details of successful projects and applicants to the CIF for the 2025/26 financial year, including the local authority, and constituency. We can confirm that 11 schools in the county of Bedfordshire were successful.